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Facebook working on incorporating the hashtag

By Dow Jones Newswires

Posted:
03/14/2013 02:21:41 PM MDT

Updated:
03/14/2013 10:07:14 PM MDT

Facebook Inc. is getting ready to take on a symbol of rival Twitter Inc.: the hashtag.

Facebook is working on incorporating the hashtag, one of Twitter's most iconic markers, into its service, said people familiar with the matter. It's unclear how far along Facebook's work on the hashtag is, and the feature isn't being introduced imminently, these people said.

On short-messaging service Twitter, the hashtag — word or phrase preceded by the "#" pound symbol — is a way for users to collate many Twitter messages about a single news event or topic, like the selection of the pope (#PopeFrancis). The hashtag is closely associated with Twitter, and fans of the service use the hashtag as short-form creative expression.

By incorporating hashtags, Facebook would be able to quickly index conversations so that conversations can quickly build around topics, as they do on Twitter. That would give users more reasons to stay logged onto the service and see more ads. Instagram, which Facebook acquired last year, already uses hashtags, allowing users to sort photos by hashtags.